Putin says he will pardon jailed oil tycoon Khodorkovsky shortly

Vladimir Putin will sign a pardon for jailed ex-Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky “in the nearest time,” the Russian president announced following a large media conference in Moscow.

“He has spent over ten years in confinement – which is a
serious term, I believe,” Putin told journalists on Thursday
after a four-hour Q&A session with national and foreign
media.

In the pardon plea that Khodorkovsky “has written just
recently,” he referred to “humanitarian
circumstances,” the president said. “His mother is ill.
And I think that a decision can be made and the decree on the
pardon will be signed in the nearest time.”

Under Russian law, convicts are entitled to seek a pardon, Putin
said. However, Khodorkovsky did not do so until recently, when an
appeal was finally submitted, he said.

The comment was made after the annual press-conference with over
1,300 journalists present. Just as the president was preparing to
leave the conference hall, one of reporters asked him about
Khodorkovsky.

Earlier in the press conference, Putin was asked about the
possibility of a third criminal case being brought against the
former Yukos CEO. The president said he did not want to comment
as he had nothing to do with it. He added, though, that he saw no
feasibility in a third case going forward.

Khodorkovsky's mother, Marina, told RT that she last spoke with
her son “through a glass wall” back in August, when she
came to see him in jail.

“So, we don’t know about his reaction [to the news],”
she said. “[Prisoners] are allowed to make phone calls once a
week, on Saturdays. So, I can’t learn about his response before
Saturday.”

She said Putin’s decision came as a surprise to her.

“It was a bolt from the blue for me, because I was totally
unaware about [the request for pardon],” Khodorkovskaya
said. “I don’t know if he asked for a pardon. I know
absolutely nothing about that.”

Answering RT’s question about whether Putin’s decision was partly
linked to the state of her health, Marina said: “I would like
to believe that he still has some humane feelings.”

Pardon plea takes Khodorkovsky's lawyer by surprise

Meanwhile, Khodorkovsky’s lawyer Vadim Klyuvgant told the RAPSI
news agency that he “did not apply [for a pardon] and we have
no information that anyone has applied on his behalf
recently.”

He added: “We don’t have such information, even though pardon
pleas have regularly been submitted by various persons”
during all the years of Khodorkovsky’s confinement. Later in the
day, the legal team departed for an urgent meeting with their
client.

Until the lawyers meet with @Khodorkovsky, all their
previous statements regarding him asking for a pardon should be
considered invalid.

Putin’s press-secretary Dmitry Peskov, however, said the letter
Putin has recently received was signed by Mikhail Khodorkovsky
personally. By filing a request for a pardon, Khodorkovsky is
admitting his guilt, Peskov also said.

“A petition for a pardon has been submitted to the president.
If he asks for a pardon, it means he admits his guilt,”
Putin’s press secretary declared.

Not everyone viewed the move as such. Pavel Krasheninnikov,
chairman of State Duma's Legislation Committee, argues that
admitting one’s guilt is not a condition required by the law.

“The Constitution provides for a right to file a request for
a pardon. There is no requirement for admitting guilt in this
case,” he told Interfax.

John McCain was also surprised by the news of a pardon for
Khodorkovsky after a “decade of political imprisonment”
which the US Senator believes has “become symbolic of
Russia’s culture of corruption, impunity, and injustice under
President Putin.”

Pavel Khodorkovsky, the son of the former oligarch, called it
"very happy news" saying that he can’t wait to see his
dad. Michael McFaul, the US Ambassador to the Russia
congratulated Pavel, in his twitter reply.

Germany's foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said Putin
made a “good decision” and expressed hope that
Khodorkovsky would “be free as soon as possible.”

Formerly Russia’s richest man and head of major oil firm Yukos,
Khodorkovsky was arrested in 2003 and later sentenced to nine
years in prison on embezzlement and tax evasion charges.

In 2010, Khodorkovsky’s prison term was prolonged after he was
found guilty of large-scale theft of oil and money laundering in
a separate case. The former tycoon's 11-year jail term officially
expires in August 2014.

Putin opponents believe that Khodorkovsky became the victim of a
campaign to punish him for perceived political challenges to the
incumbent president.

The news on the pardon prospects has immediately gone viral
across the media, with rights activists particularly welcoming
Putin’s move.

“I’m really happy that this painful and tragic saga is
nearing its end. I’m grateful to everyone who has contributed to
that,” Human Rights Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin told Interfax.

Pardoning Khodorkovsky may become a strategic decision,
indicating new moods within theh society, believes Kirill
Kabanov, the head of National anti-corruption committee and a
member of the presidential Council on Human Rights.

The pardoning of Russia’s most famous prisoner, as well as the
earlier signed presidential amnesty that came into effect today,
will improve the investment climate in the country, business
representatives believe. The Russian stock market was lifted by
the news.